Local figure
William Van Sprinkle
William Van Sprinkle was a Durham architect who designed Georgian Revival houses in Gimghoul, Laurel Hill and other Chapel Hill neighborhoods in the 1940s and 1950s. Around 1965, when the town's library committee asked Don Stewart about a traditional building, Stewart named Sprinkle as the architect for that kind of work.
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to William Van Sprinkle. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about William Van Sprinkle’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
- William Van Sprinkle designs a brick Colonial Revival house on Pine Lane for Richmond and Marjorie Bond Contractors Ellington & Sparrow built the five-part brick house, a story-and-a-half main block with lower wings joined by hyphens. It is the oldest house in the Laurel Hill boundary increase, and the nomination ranks it the best of the neighborhood's later Colonial Revival houses. People: William Van SprinkleSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, National Register nomination (OR1748), p. 14
- Architect William Van Sprinkle designs a brick house on Gimghoul Road for Benjamin Edkins The two-story brick Colonial Revival house with a one-story side wing at 739 Gimghoul Road was built for salesman Benjamin Edkins and his wife to a design by Durham architect William Van Sprinkle. People: William Van SprinkleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 63
- William Van Sprinkle designs a Colonial Revival house for Horace Crockford on Country Club Road For professor Horace D. Crockford and his wife, William Van Sprinkle designed a modest two-story Colonial Revival house of brick and weatherboard at 305 Country Club Road, with a garage wing and a cupola, as building in Laurel Hill picked up again at the end of the 1930s. People: William Van SprinkleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 65
- William Van Sprinkle designs a shingled Colonial Ranch on Laurel Hill Road for math professor Ed Cameron T. D. Green built the four-bay house, which has a board-and-batten front wing and an original screen porch. The nomination cites it as Sprinkle dressing the new Ranch form in colonial details. People: William Van SprinkleSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, National Register nomination (OR1748), p. 12
- William Van Sprinkle designs a long Contemporary Ranch on Buttons Road for Charles and Kay Bream The six-bay house for the radiology professor mixes vertical wood and brick, with sliding windows and a carport set on the diagonal. Sprinkle, known for Colonial Revival work, here turned to a modern design. People: William Van SprinkleSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Rocky Ridge Farm Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, National Register nomination (OR1748), p. 16
Places in this person’s story
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
- Gimghoul Castle and neighborhood Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries · Chapel Hill · 1 event here
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Search other library catalogs and digital collections for more about William Van Sprinkle.
Books about William Van Sprinkle
More catalogs that show where copies are
- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
Photographs, papers, and newspapers
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Research sources
Additional research sources
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for William Van Sprinkle NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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